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Welcome to the Oct 2004 edition
of THE ROCK FILES. This month's featured artist is REV JONES, bass
guitar player for such top acts as The Michael Schenker band,
Fuel, Black Symphony and others. Rev, who is a well respected
musician by his peers is also a great human being as
well and I was honored to be able to get the time to sit down and
talk to him about what he is up to.Rev who was in town recently
playing with Michael Schenker's band at Sunken Gardens is truly
an audience pleaser. His stage energy and thunderous bass rifts
made him a welcome addition to the San Antonio music scene and
judging by the way the crowd surrounded him asking for autographs
proves that he is at the top of his game. So
here goes......SRP: Thanks alot Rev for
being here for the interview.RJ:
HellllloooooSRP: So tell us what you are up
to, your background in music,who were some of your influences
etc.RV: Well, I started in
1952,with a young man called Buddy Holly... I grew up in
Oklahoma, Oklahoma City. I was in a band from around 1988 to 1995
called Forte and we actually played around in this area,
put out a couple of albums, got kinda big and then I quit and joined Black Symphony we had a couple of albums out worldwide, did some ESPN stuff., then I did some recording with Paul Gilbert (
Mr. Big), and then hired by Michael to do a couple of albums and
tour, played with Fuel.....SRP: How
did that show go?RJ: I did it for a month,
being one of those things where I got called and it's
either going to be a week or a month, you don't know, so I kinda
went out and played on his basses and amps and everything.
Those guys are great people, everyone in the band, the
whole crew. They are cool people. They move around on stage,
maybe not as much as me but they do move around so when I was on
stage with them I just fit.

Did
You Know?Rev used to play in a KISS tribute band where he performed as Gene Simmon's character?

Photo By Libby
Wendt

SRP: So they gave you stage
freedom?RJ:Oh yeah, they gave me every
kind of freedom because I never rehearsed. I actually got on the bus in
one city, watched them play , learned all the songs from there to
the next city. And so the first time I ever played with them
was at sound check and I came out on stage to 15,000 people
there in Atlanta and I'm just doing my thing and I'd never even knew the songs, I had listened to them on the radio.
They gave me a CD a week before so I could listen to it before
the actual show. I memorized the show and I looked at a set list and
didn't know the songs by name., all I knew was this
song from that song etc. ,so after a few shows I started knowing
what songs were which and I knew how they started, so I just came
out and after a couple of shows, it was great... It was fun. I
had just gotten off the tour with Schenker, we did
Europe and a week later I was on the road with Fuel. So I went from
seeing mostly older people from the Schenker crowd, mostly
guys, to a bunch of 22 year old girls singing the Fuel songs.
I mean what a difference! I was actually the young kid of
the band. I thought that the guys in Fuel were going to be
younger, I had heard of them and I thought they were all
younger than me and I got there and they are all 39 to
43.....(.OK HMMMSRP:
How was your response over in Europe?RJ: Oh, Its
always great there. It's funny cuz Black Symphony sold like 200-300,000
albums over there so I am kinda like a Rock Star over there and
on the covers of the magazines, and Michael is like the celebrity guy,
he's not like the new rock star, kinda like you have Eddie Van
Halen who is the old guy... that would be Michael Schenker over there.
It was kinda funny cuz I go over there playing with
Michael Schenker and people are coming up with Black Symphony and
Forte albums for me to sign them. Plus our drummer Pete played in
Black and Blue in the 80's and people are coming up with these
old albums.SRP:Do you think Michael
Schenker has such a following in Europe because he is from there? I
have noticed how some 80's bands have these huge followings
over seas but yet they have poor sales in the U.S. and have a hard time keeping their popularity in their home
country....RJ: The problem with America is
everyone is popular by radio, so if someone is big on radio or MTV they
are big, and if they aren't big on the radio they pull 1000 or
2000 people a show. In Europe it doesn't matter if you are big on the radio or what, they only come to your show if you are good. Europeans
listen to Metal and they like those bands. There is a
difference. I grew up listening to Helloween, those kind of
bands and early Metallica and Megadeath, but before
that it was Diamondhead, Budgie those kind of bands which is what
heavy metal is built on now. When I hear those bands now ,,
the old stuff, its great! yet when I hear new bands that sound
like that I don't like them. I love the old stuff cuz
I grew up with it. If those European people grew up listening to it,
then they love everything and if Helloween has a new album, those
people are at the show, If Schenker has a new album, those people are at
the show. There is a band Rammstein and they sell more than
Madonna. They sell out all through Europe. They sell out football stadiums with 89,000 people in it. Their sound is brutal so
they fit in with groups like Slipknot, and when they play here
for 6000 people they hate it cuz in Europe they draw huge crowds on their
own. Its A GREAT show. They are a great band. That band
will always be big. even If they took 20 years off and came back they
would still be big over there. They wouldn't be here
because of radio.SRP: What have been the high
points of your career thus far and your low
points?RJ: The high.... I haven't
gotten there yet., hopefully because if this is the high point,,, Damn I'm
screwed! I don't really have any low points. I
started playing music when I was 15 and I have been on the road playing it
since then. Guys I grew up with, some of them are great players
and if you saw them you wouldn't believe they are not out doing something. The problem missing with some today is they don't have
that superstar thing. Like Angus Young, even if you don't
like his playing he still has something, Eddie van halen, he still has
something. King Diamond... alot of these people don't have that.
Like Michael Scheduler, what he has now is like what he had in the
70's he does his guitar thing , great player,
he has his thing. So all these guys that had this thing when I was
growing up... Well I started making something of it and going
after it and they all have jobs at the factories and families. Some move
to CA and then they come back. I never did that .
Everything I got I stayed in Oklahoma and got. I didn't move to CA till
later.SRP: Do you think that being in
a stable place like San Antonio, in England or across the seas, don't you
think that where you are at is where you can make
it?RJ: Oh yeah, it doesn't matter
where you make it , like Jerry Cantrell, he's from Oklahoma, he made it in
Seattle. But he didn't move to Seattle to make it. A friend of
mine played in a disco band in Oklahoma and he is in The Nixons now. He just happened to get a gig. My buddy Greg
Upchurch is in that band Puddle of Mudd and we grew up playing in
a cover band and he played with Jerry Cantrell and he couldn't get a gig
with anybody. He opened up for a band Eleven and they needed a
member so he learned the stuff. He played with them and then played on
Chris Cornell albums and then he got a gig with Puddle of
Mudd. All my friends, no one moved there to do it. Tthey all got a gig that took them there. Last year alone I had an Alice
Cooper gig offered to me but it was long term so I turned it down
and a Rod Halford gig and I turned it down because it was 7 mos and I was
already booked.SRP; You have played with some
big guns in your time. Who would you say were the funnest and who
was somebody you would never want to tour
with?RJ: The Fuel guys were great,
it was a short term thing that I hated leaving, the crew guys, I loved
them all to death, I hate not being around these guys every day.
Jeff Martin who played with me in Black Symphony and is on the road with Kevin DuBrow is a great guy. We were in Europe together looking
at stuff. It was cool. I have never been on the road with someone
I hate.SRP: Where do you see Rev
in 10 years and what do you see yourself doing?RJ: Well I
was planning on the Presidency but they are too many bad photos of me
around and I was arrested in TX for indecent exposure. In Dallas,
I have a piercing and there is a girl sitting next to us that
wanted to see it so I showed it to her and then I was under
arrest.SRP: What would you have to say
is your favorite thing about San Antonio?RJ: Well it
would have to be the heat and humidity today, no hmmmm The people here are
great. We used to play at a club here and the people were great.
When I play here with Michael and with Fuel the people were great.
When I go back home to Oklahoma I work for a lighting company and
I do concerts and I come thru here all the time for these cheer
leading events. Its awful! a bunch of young girls jumping
around... (laughs) HEY REV... Don't forget... 16
can get ya 20!